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Ewan McGregor and Sir David Attenborough, along with some of the world’s top wildlife cameramen, put the focus on Scotland’s stunning scenery and wild animals in a new special season of programming from BBC Scotland.
Due to transmit over the spring and summer, the season, entitled Wild Scotland, will provide intimate but also inspiring images of Scottish wildlife and landscape.
Headlining the season of programmes, are:
Hebrides – Islands On The Edge
This landmark series, three years in the making, has been created by some of the key talent behind award-winning series like Big Cat Diary and Frozen Planet. It has been made by Glasgow-based Maramedia, in association with Otter Films, and produced and filmed by acclaimed wildlife filmmakers Nigel Pope, John Aitchison and Doug Anderson and is narrated by Ewan McGregor.
Against a backdrop of dramatic Atlantic weather – the series paints an intimate portrait of the lives of an unforgettable cast of wild Hebridean animals, from red deer stags battling to win their mates, to seals struggling to protect their newborn pups, from mighty basking sharks to charismatic white-tailed eagles, from the unique flowering meadows of North Uist to the swallows that have set up home in an Islay whisky distillery.
Three of the programmes chart the course of a wild year in the Hebrides. High winds, drought and the most dramatic storm in living memory are all thrown at the animal cast of the Islands on the Edge. Using the most recent technology and a unique range of cameras never used in this part of the world before, Hebrides – Islands on the Edge gives a privileged view into their lives. The fourth programme introduces some of the people from the Islands on the Edge and finds out why animals and people in the Hebrides need each other so very much.
Ewan McGregor
Wild Cameramen At Work
This four-part series, made by an inhouse BBC Scotland team, reveals how Scotland and its landscape has inspired a generation of world class cameramen to capture wildlife in all its glory across the globe and helped shape our understanding of the natural world. The series focusses on the work of Gordon Buchanan, Doug Allan, Doug Anderson, John Aitchison and Mark Smith.
Providing the narration is Sir David Attenborough.
Each week will take a different theme – Ice, Land, Sky and Sea – to illustrate the challenges and the triumphs of their endeavours.
Midsummer Live
Midsummer is a magical moment in Scotland as the country enjoys some of the longest stretches of daylight in Europe. Presented by Dougie Vipond, this live programme, over the course of the solstice evening (21 June), from Callanish standing stones will track the sun going down. It will also include a series of films highlighting how the long days affect our perspective and the nature around us.
Neil McDonald, Executive producer of the Wild Scotland season, says: “Scottish viewers will just not have seen Scottish scenery and wildlife reflected in such cinematic majesty before as we have in Hebrides – Islands on the Edge.
“It is very much a landmark series for BBC Scotland in conjunction with independent TV company Maramedia, providing unprecedented images of the greatness and minutiae of the islands’ wildlife.
“This is the flagship for a season of programmes , which celebrates the televisual gift of the Scottish scenery and wildlife for viewers and for the people, behind the camera, that it inspires.
“Across the season, we are also delighted to have such star names as Ewan McGregor and Sir David Attenborough involved as well as some of the top names behind the camera alongside the main attraction – the landscape and wildlife.”
As well as the key programming, the season – which will carry on until the autumn – will include links with Landward, Adventure Show specials, and BBC Radio Scotland programming, online and learning support.
HM
[Wild Scotland] celebrates the televisual gift of the Scottish scenery and wildlife for viewers and for the people, behind the camera, that it inspires."
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